What do I make of you, Judah?
Your declarations of love last no longer
than morning mist and predawn dew.
That’s why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light. I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know GOD, not go to more prayer meetings."
(Hosea 6:4-6 MSG)
I am reminded again how much God desires our full attention; our whole heart; a relationship based on love. He wants something lasting for us. He wants us to spend more time with Him than in settings that merely reference Him. I had to ask myself if I was pouring as much time and energy into my relationship with God as I was in church meetings, social events, reading Christian fiction, keeping up with social media, etc…
Let’s think on this…We wonder why we sometimes struggle in our faith walk, when instead of filling up our time in pursuit of God, we fill it with a lot of empty things. It’s kind of like wondering why we’re hungry all the time as we chomp on chips and pop. We eat deeply of empty, non-nutritional calories instead of life-giving food. Now, I’m not saying chips and pop are bad, playing Farmville on Facebook is detrimental to your faith, or going to your third church leadership meeting of the week is going to take away some jewels in your crown. I’m just wondering if we’ve become unbalanced. I don’t believe God is asking us to spend our whole time in Bible study, but I do wonder if we are as concerned about missing quality time with him as we are about getting to our 3-4 weekly church and/or work meetings, getting our kids to their ball games, and making it on time to our social events. Do we make sure we carve out, schedule, and plan for times completely devoted to him like we do our other activities? Or do we just fit him in when we have extra time? Do we spend as much energy on getting to know our Lord as we do learning how to please Him or serve Him. “Action steps” without “love-motivation” is religion, not relationship. With all of my heart and I don’t want to have Christ whisper in my heart…
“Your declarations of love last no longer
than morning mist and predawn dew…
I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.
I want you to know GOD, not go to more prayer meetings.”
I can't help but think of the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42. Martha is running all over willy-nilly serving the Lord while Mary sits at His feet. Which one did the Lord say was doing the right thing? Yep, Mary. “Come on!”, you say. “Martha was working her fingers to the bone serving the Lord!”. A great picture of what God truly desires. Heart and relationship first; service out of love for Him second.
John MacArthur says it like this: “…what Mary was doing was better still. She had ‘chosen the good part’ (Luke 10:42). She had discovered the one thing needful: true worship and devotion of her heart and full attention to Christ. That was a higher priority even than service, and the good part she had chosen would not be taken away from her, even for the sake of something as gracious and beneficial as helping Martha prepare Jesus a meal. Mary’s humble, obedient heart was a far greater gift to Christ than Martha’s well-set table. This establishes worship as the highest of all priorities for every Christian. Nothing, including even service rendered to Christ, is more important than listening to Him and honoring Him with our hearts.”
I pray for myself, and you, that when life gets out of perspective and balance, we take the time to be like Mary and just sit at Jesus’ feet; worshiping Him as we absorb his wisdom, love, and presence.
Worshiping with you today,
Lisa
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